The War of 18-49, Heroes

HEROES (NBC)

Why post this on Monday? Heroes aired its entire 77-episode run on the night.

See (who saw) how it all began: Heroes debuted on 9/25/06 with 14.1 million viewers and a 5.9 demo, a very solid start for a 2006-07 drama.  It lost just 7% of that in week two, dropping to a 5.5, and then perked back up to a 5.9 in week three.  A hit was born.

The best of times: For a show that became known in its last two seasons for dropping almost every other week, the show was remarkably consistent in season 1, and the "best of times" was probably a 14-episode span in the middle of season 1 that entirely fell in the 6's in the demo, peaking at a series-high 6.9 on 11/20/06.

The worst of times: But after season 1, it was a pretty precipitous fall, which each volume chewing off another chunk of the audience. Season 2 usually fell in the low 5's, the first half of season 3 in the upper 3's, the second half in the low 3's, the first half of season 4 in the low to mid 2's, and the final run in early 2010 right around a 2.0. The worst it got was the fourth episode from the end, which found merely a 1.8/4 in the demo on 1/18/10.

Then vs. now: A show losing this much steam within just four seasons is pretty ugly. Just comparing the season 1 and season 4 averages, there's a pretty huge loss of 63%, but if you just compare the final seven-episode run (which averaged just a 2.03) with the peak days, it becomes well over a two-thirds decline. Perhaps the saddest thing of all, though, is that even a 2.0 average made it pretty competitive by NBC drama standards, and a case could've been made for its renewal. But high costs and likely continued declines were probably the show's undoing, and rightfully so.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Timeslot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2006-07	Monday 9:00	6.13		5.1	6.9	detail
2	2007-08		5.24	-15%	4.9	6.5	detail
3	2008-09		3.65	-30%	2.6	5.0	detail
4	2009-10	Mon 8:00, Mon 9:00	2.30	-37%	1.8	2.8	detail

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now15	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2006-07	163	big hit	2.74		135	183	157	165
2	2007-08	158	big hit	2.66	-3%	148	197	197	151
3	2008-09	121	solid	2.04	-23%	86	166	166	100
4	2009-10	82	marginal	1.37	-33%	64	99	99	71
AVERAGE:		131	hit
CAREER:		524	staple

For more on The War of 18-49, my look at the history of primetime TV's veteran shows, see the Index.